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Westerly named R.I.’s best place to live; Providence ranks No. 10

WESTERLY CAME OUT ON top in Movoto Real Estate's ranking of the 10 best places to live in Rhode Island. Above, a chart showing the individual criteria rankings for each of the 22 cities, towns, villages and census-designated places with populations of more than 1,000 that were included in the Movoto evaluation.

PROVIDENCE – Movoto Real Estate has named Westerly the best place to live in Rhode Island, lauding the high quality of life and low crime and unemployment rates in the Ocean State’s southwestern-most town.

Movoto identified 22 Rhode Island cities, towns, villages and census-designated places with populations of more than 1,000 and evaluated them according to seven criteria: quality of life (including cost of living, median home price, median household income and student-to-teacher ratio), crime rate, unemployment, average commute time, sales and income tax rates, local weather and number of amenities such as restaurants and shops.

The 22 locations were then ranked based on a single “big deal score” compiled from the seven individual criteria scores.

Westerly scored highly for its many restaurants, student-teacher ratio of 14 to 1, median home price of $301,200 and one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state at 8.7 percent. Westerly’s crime rate of 1,907 crimes per 100,000 people made it the seventh safest place on Movoto’s list of Rhode Island locales.

Two Hopkinton villages – Ashaway and Hope Valley – scored among the highest in terms of overall quality of life, with median household incomes of $72,024 and $78,214, respectively. Hope Valley’s median income was the highest of any of the cities and towns included in the Movoto list.

“Rhode Island is like one of those tiny hors d’oeuvres at a nice restaurant; it barely takes up a 10th of that pristine, white plate, and yet, when you bite into it, it’s filled with rich flavors, each one with its own unique zing,” wrote Natalie Grigson, author of the Movoto article. “Each city, town and place within its borders brings a different flavor – some undoubtedly better than others.”

Movoto’s list of the 10 best places to live in Rhode Island is as follows:

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